Living with the Party: How Leisure Shaped a New China

Description

This book explores the subcultures, cultural trends and regulations of leisure and subcultures among young people in Beijing from 1949 to the 1980s. It complicates our understanding of the successes of the CCP and the nature of those successes―more a synergy or synthesis than victory over society or defeat. It argues that while the CCP aimed to direct the most private sphere in people’s everyday life (i.e., leisure), it did not achieve this goal by coercive means, but by appealing ways through organized leisure activities. This book suggests that although elements of youth subcultures can be observed throughout the Mao era, we should not treat them as a way of passive resistance. Instead, we must position these subcultures between different layers of the Party’s leisure regulation to examine what the CCP actually achieved. Many people who engaged in subcultures defied the blatant politicization of their leisure, some might have defied the process of collectivization, but few defied the process of institutionalization during which people did not find state intervention contradictory to their own way of pleasure-seeking. This book also suggests that instead of regarding the Deng Xiaoping era as a breakaway from Maoist interventionist rule, we need to see the historical continuity as revealed by the Party’s uninterrupted policy of leisure regulation. Thought provoking and at times amusing, this book will interest sinologists, historians, and scholars of China's social form. Acknowledgments Contents Acronyms List of Figures List of Tables 1 Introduction Existing Interpretations of State-Society Relations Toward a New Model Positioning Leisure in China Lifestyle and Youth Subcultures Sources and Methods Outline of Chapters 2 A Happy New World: The Communist Takeover of Leisure The Communist View on Leisure Dealing with Existing Leisure Activities: Three Tactics Putting Aside: Private Ball Game Clubs Redirecting: Self-Organized Dancing Replacing: Radio Entertainment and Games Providing New Leisure: The Beijing Youth Service Department Conclusion: The Decentralized Takeover of Leisure in Beijing 3 Temporal Politics in Beijing, 1949–1956 Leisure Time: The Sphere of Temporal Politics Vacations and Weekends: Temporal Politics at the First Stage The Summer of Liberation for Beijing Students Teach Students How to Rest Properly Visitors and Performers: Spending Days off in Park Festivals Problematizing Youth Leisure “Life Should Be Planned:” Temporal Politics Deepened More Regulations of Everyday Leisure Time The Model of the Beijing Normal University Girls’ High School “Leisure Time Does Not Belong to Us” Mandatory Activities Unnecessary Student Work Forced Participation in Collective Activities The Struggle Over Leisure Time: The Policy of “Free Allocation of Leisure Time” Examining the Impacts of “Temporal Politics” Conclusion: Temporal Politics and the Forging of a New Pace of Life 4 Youth Subcultures, Leisure Regulation, and Community Life, 1955–1962 Targets: Inappropriate Joyfulness and Unfavorable Connections Pressurizing Everyday Life The “Yellow Songs” Mania Living as a Socialist Community: The Great Leap of Everyday Life Forging Post-Leap Community Life Through Leisure Regulation Conclusion: Accumulating a Communist Version of “Social Capital” 5 Anxiety About Difference: Politicization and Stratification in Leisure, 1962–1966 The Possibility of Alternative Lifestyles Positioning Leisure in Urban Planning Imagining an Alternative Way of Life from Hong Kong Films The Resurgence of Commercial Networks Fear of a “Peaceful Evolution” Revolutionizing Everyday Ways of Life Politicization of Leisure Experienced Differentiation Derived from Politicization Conclusion: The Limits of Politicization 6 Exiting the Revolution: Alternative Ways of Life and the Institutionalization of Leisure, 1966–1976 The Great Revolution in Temporal Order Competing for Leadership by Exiting Waiting for a Better Chance by Exiting Being Loyal to Communist Orthodoxy by Exiting Passing Time Safely by Exiting Privileged Exits Conclusion: Did Revolution Have Exits? 7 Epilogue Dazhai Versus Xiaojinzhuang: Debating Post-Mao Leisure Regulation New Trends and Old Traditions in the 1980s Conclusion References Index